Stress management strategies and controlling emotion among Polish nurses and midwives who suffer COVID: cross-sectional study

Introduction Stress management strategies and the ability of nursing staff to control their emotions is an important way to reduce emotional tension in a difficult situation. Aim To identify the dominant stress management strategy and emotion control modality in professionally active nurses and midwives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods A total of 137 nursing personnel from south-eastern Poland were studied. Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected with a questionnaire developed by the authors, stress management was assessed with the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS), and control of emotions was examined with the Courtauld Emotional Control Scale (CECS). Results The most common strategy for stress management strategy among nursing staff was the task-oriented strategy, the least frequently used was the avoidance. Only the avoidance style showed a significant difference in the group of midwives taking the form of seeking social contact ( p = 0.016). CECS in none of the subcategories showed a significant difference for the profession. It turned out that the longer the time elapsed in nursing staff from having contracted COVID-19, the less often they chose the avoidance oriented coping ( p = 0.022), and the presence of more post-COVID complications favoured focusing on emotions ( p = 0.016) and avoidance ( p = 0.005) in the form of initiating social contacts ( p = 0.003). Conclusions The tendency to prefer a maladaptive style of coping with stress and suppression of emotions in nursing staff is associated with the risk of psychosomatic diseases and occupational burnout. The results indicate the necessity of providing interprofessional support combined with learning to “actively cope” with stress at work.